The Morrigan is a British folk prog band with roots in both Celtic folk music and the olde British folk rock scene. They have often been compared to bands like Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and Horslips. Their albums is highly regarded and they have a solid following too. † †

I got in touch with Colin Masson for the story and the latest updates.

Your biography has been covered in your
ProgArchives profile so let's bypass the biography details. But why
did you choose that name and which bands were you influenced by ?

I can remember exactly how the band
got it's name. At the time we had already played our first gig under
the wonderful moniker of the "Airport Convenience." (This
joke was courtesy of Rick Sanders of the original Fairport
Convention).

Anyway we were basking in the glory of
our first gig, which if I remember correctly was on 1st
December1984, at the Caribbean club in Basingstoke.

The Morrigan in 1985

Left to right: Cathy Alexander, Cliff Eastabrook,
Colin Masson

We were sitting in the public bar of
the Swan in Sherborne St John, trying to work out what we were going
to call ourselves. At the time I was quite a fan of the works of
Alan Garner. The previous band that I had played in, which had split
up the year before, had been called Elidor,after his novel of the
same name, so I suggested that perhaps we could use the title of one
of his other books. Unfortunately there was already another band
called "Red Shift", and nobody was going to play in a band
called the "Wierdstone of Brisingamen" (at least none of us
were). I thought some more, and suggested calling the band after the
latter novel's principle villainess. Alan Garner gets a lot of his
material from Celtic and British folklore, and a little deeper
delving (bearing in mind this is long before the Internet), showed
that the Morrigan was the Celtic goddess of death and destruction,
war, pestilence, and any number of nasty things. She is supposed to
manifest as either the maiden, the woman,or the hag, and given that
we were a three piece of the time, it sort of seemed to fit .

(I don't know which of us was which
however). It also meant that if we ever wanted to be a ceilidh band
we could call ourselves Selina Plaice because that was the name the
Morrigan chose when she was living in the modern world.

Your type of music is very special and
not mainstream. Why makes this type of music your heart strings sings
and/or what makes it so fascinating to you ?

I think that the Morrigan was always
going to be a vehicle for doing pretty well what we wanted to.

Cathy had already been working as a
solo artist on the folk circuit and had a strong grounding in
traditional music, but she also wrote her own songs, and was a big
Genesis fan. It turned out also that we both loved Sibelius, which
was the start of a beautiful relationship.

Cathy Alexander

Cliff Easterbrook, was one of the
original members, and the newcomer Colin Masson (The narrator), had
both been in rock bands of various sorts beforehand. Cliff was very
much into Chris Squire, whereas I had been interested in the likes of
Mike Oldfield, Steve Hillage, and Andy Latimer.

Anything goes! One minute we might be
doing a huge great prog epic, the next we might be doing a piece of
jazz blues, then we might be doing a song (unaccompanied of course)
about fishing for fish fingers off the Isle of Wight. As long as we
can do it live, it goes into the melting pot.

Over to your albums. Please tell us
more about your first album The Spirit of the Soup from 1985

Spirit of the Soup was our first foray
into the wonderful world of recording. At the time I think we hired a
4 track Tascam cassette Portastudio. Basically we were like a bunch
of kids with a new toy. The lineup at the time was myself (Colin
Masson), Cliff Eastabrook, and Cathy Alexander. The album was
recorded over a period of about two weeks in Cathy's living room in
Old Basing, and was released as a cassette album. To my mind the
highlight track on it is "Cold Blows the Wind, which is a
beautiful folk ballad, if rather morbid. The performance by Cathy of
the vocal and also the recorder break (the whole lot done as a single
take) is as good as anything we've ever done since. The other really
interesting track is "The Great Sun" which is a setting of
a poem by Charles Causely . This involved multi-layering of
harmonies and unusual instrumentation and was a bit of a hint as to
where the Morrigan would be going in the future. The rest of it
could genuinely be called "slightly souped up folk with not much
rock in it. Bearing in mind that this was 1984, absolutely nobody in
the music business was even slightly interested. Remember that this
was the period of the new Romantics, and punk was still around. We
were about as fashionable Ted Heath's underpants.

A Scene from our first video,
Fortunately for us the video is long gone.

(if anyone has a copy of this video, please send it to us† - tf)

Please tell us more about your second
album Rides Out from 1990

As you can see, there was quite a gap
between the first album and the second. We had done a fair bit of
recording on and off, but had increasingly come to the conclusion
that a cassette portastudio was not going to give you a studio
quality album.

In the meantime we had
acquired a drummer, who came by the wonderful name of Arch (not his
real name), he very quickly became Archie. We were getting distinctly
rocky in our approach to music. At this time Cliff very much played
a leading role in the development of the band, and it was his idea
that we should try and put out a real, genuine, vinyl album. Largely
through his efforts, we manage to obtain a backer who was prepared to
put up the money to print a thousand albums. We had also met a young
man by the name of Jon Hayward, who had been given a 2 inch Studer
tape machine, and a 32 channel desk as an 18th birthday present by
his parents. This might sound a little excessive, but you have to
bear in mind that these particular pieces of equipment were already
ancient by this time, having been built at the beginning of the 70s,
they got it at a (relatively) cut down price. "The Morrigan
Rides Out" took a long time to record, largely because the
machinery kept breaking down. The "dicky pot" and "scritty
slider" became part of everyday language. We consumed vast
quantities of switch cleaner and beer.

Cliff and Jon Hayward

Even so we managed to produce half of
the album with this wreck of a studio (in his dad's garage to boot!)
The title track however, was recorded on a hired 8 track machine in a
beautiful farmhouse in Cornwall. That is a period that we remember
with great fondness. During the recording of the album we were
joined by Melanie Byfield. Although she did not stay in the band for
long, she has remained a lifelong friend.

Melanie Byfield

After she left Jon Hayward joined
the band. As well is owning an insane studio he was an absolutely
brilliant classical guitarist, it's a shame that we weren't able to
make more of his abilities, but during the time that he was with us
tensions between various members of the band had increased and
creative opportunities had lessened considerably. It was something
of a missed chance that we did not use him more.

Avalon Stage Glastonbury Festival 1992

Avalon Stage Glastonbury 1993

At the end of this period Cliff left
and indeed we very nearly called it a day (this would have been a
roundabout 94-95) relations had gone into a somewhat downward spiral,
a bit like a rocky marriage, and though Cliff was undeniably a superb
bassist and theatrical front man, everybody was relieved (including
himself) when he jumped ship and joined the Press gang. Like
everything time tends to heal imagined wrongs, and we still keep in
touch with him.

Please tell us more about your third
album Wreckers from 1996

In order to say anything about
"Wreckers", which was our first release on a record label,
we have to go back to the "Spirit of the Soup". It turns
out that somebody in Spain had made a vinyl bootleg of what must have
been a cassette copy of an album recorded on a four track. The sound
quality was absolutely awful! But it was selling on the collectors
market. Maybe "like hotcakes" might be a little bit of an
exaggeration, but it came to the attention of a record company, and
to cut a long story short, we got a deal.

When we started recording, there
were only three of us, Cathy and I had been on the verge of giving
up, but Arch insisted that there was still a future for the band, and
when we started recording, we tried briefly to see, whether we could
work as a three-piece using only keyboards, guitars, and drums, which
was something of a challenge. The opening track on the album entitled
"the Millers Dance" was recorded in this way. the bass part
is in fact played by Arch who was using a Yamaha MIDI drum pad
attached to Cathy's Synth (whilst simultaeneously playing the drums).
It's a really good arrangement and one of my favourite numbers.

However it quickly became obvious
that we were not going to be able to do what we really wanted with
the current lineup, so we started looking for a bass player. Cliff
was going to be a hard act to follow, and indeed proved impossible to
replace. All the bass players we saw couldn't play threes over
Fours, or if they could, they only wanted to play jazz.

Mervyn & David

Arch mentioned at this point that he
was playing with a covers band, under the wonderful name of "Bolton
Parsnips", with two of his friends from his schooldays. These
were Dave Lodder and Mervyn Bags (guitar and vocals respectively).
Cathy and I went to one of their rehearsals, and jaws dropped when we
realised how good Dave was on the guitar not to mention how good Merv
was on vocals. Again to cut a long story short, they joined and I
became the bass player. My reasoning was that I might not have been
as good Cliff, but at least I knew the right things to play under a
guitar solo. This is the lineup that we used to record the rest of
"Wreckers". For me the stand out track other than the
opener, is probably "The Agincourt Carol/La Rotta which is a
piece of purely Medieval mayhem but with a very unusual instrumental
lineup.This got played on Folk on 2.

Please tell us more about your fourth
album Masque from 1997

Masque was recorded at Greenacres farm
near Salisbury, and was a very enjoyable album to make. The lineup
was the same as the one that finished Wreckers, and to my mind this
was a period when all our creativity seem to be working in the same
direction. We had also acquired a Roland hard disk recorder, and
though recording a full band was a little bit tortuous, it greatly
improved the quality of the sound. I still enjoy everything on this
album, but to me the first two tracks stand out especially. The
title track "Masque" which goes from a moody intro,(Always
Winter Never Christmas), Through a guitar led instrumental (Masque
itself) into "The Boar's Head Carol" a 16th century
Christmas Carol, finishing with a rennaisance dance known as a
Bransles (pronounced Brawl), By the Flemish composer Tielman Susato.
This is essence of Morrigan, and a real fusion of prog and folk. The
second track is "Dever the Dancer" sung by Cathy, which
evokes the spirit of winter, and was inspired by a walk through an
ancient yew forest on a very cold winters day. On this track Merv
persuaded his cousin to play, he just happened to be second violinist
with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra! Consequently we double
tracked the hell out of him and so the song comes complete with real
strings on it. (I'd love to do something like that again!) Also
Cliff put in a guest appearance as he had written the original bass
line.

Please tell us more about your fifth
album Hidden Agenda from 2002

This is certainly our most accomplished
album but unfortunately up until now it is also the last (There are
plans afoot to remedy this however). Funnily enough it was recorded
initially on the same tape machine and desk as "The Morrigan
Rides out". By this time John Hayward, and also our friend Luke
Hardy, had managed to beat it into some form of submission (the full
story of how we managed to end up living next to own recording studio
can be found on the band website). I think of particular interest to
all you itinerant proggers is the track "A Night To Remember,"
which is the story of the sinking of the Titanic. This number had a
very long gestation period going right back to the time when Cliff
was in the band. Therefore it considerably predated the film. In
fact the title comes from a much earlier (and to my mind somewhat
better) movie starring Kenneth More, which I think was filmed on the
Mauritania in 1958. I think this track is the closest we ever got to
being a full-blown prog rock band! However in one sense it follows
the folk tradition in that it tells the story as truthfully as
possible. These lyrics were particularily hard to write, as they have
to scan, keep you interested, and yet not take too many liberties
with the facts. It took me about four months to write (much longer
than the music took, we had the bones of it done in about a week).
The final part, which is brilliantly sung by Merv, is taken from the
inventory of the ship, and includes the line "The biggest
reciprocating engines in the world" it is my proudest
achievement as a songwriter that I managed to get those engines to
fit into the song!

Arch with Luke Hardy, and the enormous
Amek desk in 2001

Towards the end of this recording Dave
decided that he wanted to pursue a more personal musical direction
which was somewhat more Jazz Rock in style. He went on to form a
three-piece with his brother John, and with Arch (who plays in a lot
of bands). This combo is called Blue Drift. They released two very
good albums for which I did the artwork (Plug). So we found
ourselves looking for a new guitarist. Enter Matt Carter, multi
instrumentalist extrodinaire. He had already played mandolin and
banjo on Hidden Agenda and was an old friend from the folk scene.
Things were complicated however by the fact that he had got fed up
with folk sessions and banjo, and mandolin, and was far more
interested in playing modern heavy metal and jazz (he introduced us
to the delights of Rammstein and Weather Report). The other thing was
that he got it into his head that he would rather play bass guitar.

So we had to go looking for a new
guitarist. Fortunately I was available. That brings us more or less
up to date.

Matt Carter

What is the latest update on your band
?

At the moment I think you could say
that we are in a sort of semi-retirement (we are not spring chickens)
The renewed interest that has come about largely because of your
website is making us think that there is at least one more album to
come out of the old beast. And we should certainly gig again.
Unfortunately one of two of the other members of the band have got
priorities unrelated to the band itself, which is one of the
consequences of not being carefree youngsters or rock superstars. We
certainly haven't broken up though, and try to keep in contact with
each other. On a more immediate note, we thought a Yuletide EP might
be a good idea. As you will have gathered we have several songs
related to the festive season,(including "Good King Wensceslas"
which has not been included on any album). The artwork is done so
it would be simple to put out and could be an effective taster to
those who haven't listened to us before, to hear what we are about.

How is the creative process in The
Morrigan from coming up with a theme/riff/idea to you get it down
onto an album ?

I don't think that there is only one
way that we write. Some of the pieces can start off being highly
arranged, this is particularly the case with some of the songs, but
on the other hand tune arrangements tend to be as a result of jam
sessions that are then tightened up. Irish music particularly
follows a certain number of conventions, so it's very easy to get up
something that sounds quite decent very quickly. The trick is to try
and find a new slant on it, to keep it from sounding like the Pogues
or Steeleye Span. That's where most of the fun is.

Limelight Club 2004

Just to give those of us who are
unknown with your music a bit of a reference point or : How would you
describe your music ?

In the past we have had comparisons (In
no particular order) to: Jethro Tull, Genesis, the Pink Floyd, Mike
Oldfield, the Bonzo dogs, Horslips, Rush, Steeleye Span, and Camel.

We sometimes do George Gershwin for an
encore, along with a heavy metal version of a song collected by Ralph
Vaughan Williams, in the Hampshire village of Axford (where Cliff
comes from) at the end of the 19th century. I think that just about
sums up our style.

How is your gigs situation ? Is there
any plans or wishes to play gigs or festivals in and outside UK for
the rest of this year and/or next year ?

Currently we are not gigging as a band,
this is purely and simply because right now other events are rather
taking precedence. We do hope to get back together within the next
six months or so. In the meantime Cathy and I are planning to go out
as a duo. This will be not unlike The Morrigan unplugged I expect.

How is the availability of your first
albums and what is your experience with the music industry and the
new internet music scene ?

Right now we have copies of all albums
which you can buy from our own website Which is where we would like
to get them from of course!, There are also quite a few floating
around in the ether out there. I have seen albums on eBay, and the
original vinyl version of "Rides Out" changes hands amongst
collectors for around about 50 or £60 a throw. Unfortunately we see
none of that money, and we no longer have any vinyl copies of our own
to sell. Additionally all our albums are available as downloads on:
i tunes, Amazon and several other music download sites. Fairly soon
we will be putting the albums up as downloads on our own website,
obviously cutting out the middleman.

Besides of Colin Masson's solo albums,
are you involved in any other bands or projects ?

As I said earlier Cathy and I are
planning to go out as a duo this year (Hopefully the proceeds will go
towards a holiday in the Urbachtal valley in Switzerland). She and I
have also been working with Max Hunt of Tantalus and Fragile, in an
Arthurian project called Artorius for which we released an album
about a year ago.

What is your plans for the rest of this
year and next year ?

Really to carry on as we have been.

To wrap up this interview, is there
anything you want to add to this interview ?

Just to say thank you to everyone on
this site and for the interest that they have shown. For those who
are interested you can find our website here. †Thank
you very much to all of you!

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